Jury finds previously incompetent attorney guilty in high-speed pursuit. Now, she faces prison time

A Lakewood Ranch defense attorney has been found guilty of leading law enforcement officers in the Florida Panhandle on a high-speed chase and resisting arrest, according to court records.

Terra Carroll was arrested on Sept. 10, 2016, after leading deputies with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office and later Gulf Breeze police officers on a high-speed pursuit. Following her arrest, however, a judge ordered Carroll to undergo a competency evaluation at a prosecutor’s request.

Carroll was later found incompetent to stand trial because of mental illness in October 2016, and she was ordered into a Florida state hospital. After several months of treatment, Carroll was found competent again in February 2017 and released on bond the following month.

On Tuesday, a Santa Rosa County jury found Carroll guilty as charged of fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement at a high speed or reckless driving and resisting arrest without violence.

The defense attorney is now facing anywhere from time served to up to five years in prison. The fleeing count, however, carries a mandatory adjudication of guilt, which means Carroll have a felony conviction on her record.

Carroll was ordered to appear back in court at 1 p.m. Feb. 20 to be sentenced. Meanwhile, the standard pre-sentencing investigation will be conducted and was ordered to be completed three days before sentencing.

Carroll had initially also been charged with reckless driving, driving under the influence, aggravated fleeing law enforcement with injury or damage, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery on law enforcement and resisting an officer with violence at the time of her arrest.

A Sleep Easy bath salts jar, a glass jar with 6.4 ounces of white powder, a U.S. passport, $69 and green tea vitamin extract were found by police during a search of her 2008 Jeep Compass following her arrest, according to police reports.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Jury finds previously incompetent attorney guilty in high-speed pursuit. Now, she faces prison time."